The New Attack on Tax Reform: When Lies Are Not Enough

I’m never sure whether House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is as stupid as she sounds or, more likely, as duplicitous and audacious as she has proven to be. She learned the art of corruption at her father’s knee. He was Thomas “Tommy” D’Alesandro, former mayor of Baltimore, confidant of mob boss Benjamin “Benny Trotta” Magliano, and frequent target of corruption scandals who was turned out of office when a reform minded Democrat group ousted the long-standing Democrat machine resulting in his ouster and several election defeats thereafter.

For example there is Ms. Pelosi’s halting defense of taxpayer funded abortion on demand up to and including partial birth abortions – a truly brutal act involving the movement of the unborn child to the vaginal or birth canal followed by the puncture of the child’s skull and the removal of its brain by powerful suction. Ms. Pelosi asserts that she is a devout and practicing Catholic and that the Catholic Church has never concluded when life begins. She then follows that by asserting that the Church supports the concept of “free will” and therefore embraces a woman’s right to choose.

As a practicing Catholic I know that all of that is a lie since the Church has been unremitting in its opposition to abortion at any stage of pregnancy and has uniformly asserted that life begins upon conception. (The Church’s view of viability – the ability of the fetus to exist outside the womb – has evolved with science and the improvement of medical care.) And the Church also has been uniform in its teaching about “free will” by stating unequivocally that the exercise of free will cannot be at the expense of another’s life or property – that is, abortion is an abomination because its result is to deny a child’s right to live.

But your first reaction that Ms. Pelosi is so stupid as to believe all of that must give way to the recognition that she has simply given “official sanction” to what has long been the liberal/progressives focus on women’s rights as a sobriquet for the right to an abortion – an abortion on demand and funded by taxpayers through government subsidies and welfare payments. She accomplished this by mixing the terms “viability” with “beginning of life” and distorting the concept of “free will.” It is not really a theological justification rather just a parsing of words. It is a political cover for those who hold liberalism as their substitute for religion.

And then there was her pronouncement that Congress had to pass Obamacare before you could really know what is in it. It may sound nonsensical and it is if you are looking at it logically. But this was a political statement – not a factual or logical explanation.

It was a warning to stop asking questions and remember that the primary goal was for the government – a government run by liberal/progressives – to seize control of a substantial portion (18%) of the national economy thus permitting liberal/progressives to use that control to extract revenue and impose adherence to its social agenda. Any increase in dependence on the federal government benefits liberal/progressives and bolsters their ability to retain voting control by always arguing that any vote not cast for them will result in the loss of a government benefit – Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare support, student loans, taxpayer funded abortions, voting rights, housing, child care, education, unemployment benefits, etc. – each with its own built in voting block.

Which brings us to the newest bizarre statement by Ms. Pelosi. On national television she has declared that the recently adopted Trump tax cuts will, when fully implemented, result in tax increases for the overwhelming majority of taxpaying Americans. This despite mathematical proof that over eighty percent of taxpaying Americans will actually receive a reduction in taxes. (Atlantic Monthly – December 2017) The trick here is to ignore that palatable lie and focus on Ms. Pelosi’s language “when fully implemented.”

When Ms. Pelosi talks about “when fully implemented” she is referring to the expiration of those portions of the tax bill that expire at the end of seven years. The November 16, 2017 issue of The Huffington Post noted that the Byzantine rules of the United States Senate are the culprit:

“Though the Senate bill makes its business tax cuts permanent, the individual cuts are temporary to comply with a rule that forbids legislation from adding to the federal budget deficit after 10 years. It’s a gimmick; no Republicans actually want any of the cuts to expire.”

The Huffington Post article goes on to note that, because of this rule, most tax reductions are deemed to be “temporary” but are, in fact, routinely extended and eventually become permanent.

But that is the evil intent of Ms. Pelosi and her merry band of Trump hating, tax and spend liberal/progressives. They intend to block extension of the tax cuts but blame the Republicans for the tax increases. Your initial reaction would be that the Republicans will never let that happen but have you looked around at how often the Republican sit by and let these things happen. (The latest instance is the recently adopted appropriation bill in which Ms. Pelosi got continued funding for America’s chief abortion mill – Planned Parenthood – and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) got funding for his widely criticized New York to New Jersey tunnel while the Republicans got nothing, including funding for the Mexican border wall.)

The Republican Congress should introduce legislation to make the tax cuts permanent, force a vote and hold the Democrats accountable for their obstructions. That is what should happen but what will happen is nothing and the Trump tax cuts will disappear in 2025.